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The Soong story of the softly spoken Taiwanese businessman is one of great success,on and off the golf course, writes Adam Main

Beta Soong owns many businesses through his company, the Silport Group, but it quickly becomes clear which ones he is most passionate about.
The soft-spoken Taiwanese industrialist owns two golf courses Shanghai Silport, site of the Volvo China Open, and the Tiger Beach Golf Links in shandong province, a course he designed and built himself with no previous design experience.
Among China’s golf fraternity, one where Taiwanese course owners are very prominent, Soong is one of its most visible members.

His Silport club has hosted the Volvo China Open for the past five years and was the co-host of the Fifth National General Manager Conference in October, an event that attracted more than 300 industry professionals from around the mainland.

In addition, his Tiger Beach course in Haiyang, about 90 minutes drive from Qingdao, the country’s beer capital, hosted the Tiger Beach Classic in June, a US$50,000 event that teed off the fledgling China PGA League season.

So passionate about the development of golf in China is Soong that he boldly predicts the China Open could become golf’s fifth major.

“Over the past 10 years, the growth of golf in this country has been explosive,more than 200 courses have opened and the game is becoming increasingly popular,” Soong said.
“If you couple that with the huge volume of business, the fact that the country’s economy has expanded 9.5 percent in the first three quarters, and the noumber of overseas professionals who are coming into the country at an unprecedented rate, such a climate is conducive to a healthy golf climate for many years to come.”

He pointed to the fact that China will stage at least six professional tournaments this year as proof of the game’s growth in the country. In addition, the China PGA League staged four tournaments.

“Big business likes golf and undoubtedly, many more professional events will develop in China Open in 1999 because I could see its potential. I truly believe the Open is really the only tournament in the world that has the potential to become the fifth Major.”

Soong also believes the Volvo China Open will surprise many people this year as the tournament;s purse in US$1 million, double that of 2003,and for the first time the event will be part of the European Tour schedule.

The fact the tournament tees off the 2005 European Tour season and falls a week before the HongKong Open ensures potentially its best line-up yet.
“A lot of people watching the Volvo China Open on television in Europe and around the world are going to be surprised when they see this tournament. It will really open their eyes when they see the beauty of Silport, the quality of the field of players and hear about the development of the game in china.

“Building Silport into one of world’s greatest golf clubs has always been my goal and this tournament is a golden opportunity for us.”

While Soong is passionate about the development of China’s national championment of China’s national championship, he is equally enthusiastic about growing the mainland’s next generation of professional players. He said China’s number on Zhang Liawei and Liang Wenchong were excellent ambassadors but the country needed more top players.

He said it was exxential for big business to throw its support behind the development of Chinese professionals so the could compete with the world’s top players.

“There are a lot of talented young players in China but their development is being hampered by a lack of competition. It was my intention that the Tiger beach Classic would encourage other club owners to stage tournaments and help the game grow. There were a handful of tournaments for Chinese professionals to play in this year,and that’s encouraging, but there needs to be more,” Soong said.

“I believe there really is poten tially great golf culture in this country.”

“The coverage in the media is very visible, ther is growing interest and awareness of the sport among the general public and that’s good for the overall development of golf.”

The Tiger Beach classic also provided a showcase for Tiger Beach Golf Links, an impressive 18 hole seaside course that took Soong three years to create after much trial and tribulation.

“Links is my favourite style of golf and in Tiger Beach I tried to take a little something from its best possible elements. It was an homour for us to host the china PGA League at Tiger Beach as it was probably a type oflayout that many of these professionals had never experienced befor. But if they are to progress at the highest level of golf, experiencing layouts such as Tiger Beach is paramount to their development.

Tiger Beach also found an unexpected admirer in the form of Carnoustie Golf Links. In 2001, a delegation from Angus, the Scottish county where the famed Brithish Open course in located ,was in Shandong on trade mission.Someone asked if the group would like to have a round of golf and the were taken to Tigher Beach.

The Scotsmen were blown away to find a links course like those in their native land. Upon returning home, they informed the committee at Carnoustie. A delegation from the six-time Brithish Open host venue later traveled to China to look at the course. They were so impressed they offered to sign a sisterlinks agreenent between two courses.

In June 2002, an agreement was signed in a ceremony at Carnoustie, the first time in its more than 300-year history that the Scottish club had signed with anyone.

Soong called the sister-links greement one of his proudest moments in golf, but he added there was still much work to be done at each of his clubs. He said he would eventually build another 18 holes and a luxury hotel at Tiger Beach’s remote location to make the club a complete golf travel destination.

“This is something for the future. But right now we are really concentrating on creating awareness for what we have right now at Tiger Beach in golf circles. We have had a lot of success with Korean people fiying intgo (nearby) Qingdao or Yantai and coming to Tigers Beach for a couple of days. This is something we would like to expand, particularly in China, as people who love golf will really enjoy this cours.”

While Soong admittedly would like to fine-tune Tiger beach himself, he has commissioned the job of creating nine new holes at Silport to Roger Packard. The American designer is working on the layout, which will be ready in mid-2005.


Packard’s best known work is perhaps his redesign of pars of the famed Medinah course layout in Chicago for its hosting of the 1990 US Open won by Hale Irwin.
“This will be our North Course that will expand silport to 36 Holes. It is something that we really needed as it will eliminate the bottleneck we sometimes get when the two nine-hole layouts empty into the one nine-hole layout,”Soong said.
“The new nine is faithful to the original design integrity of the existing 27 holes but it will create more interest overall for our members and guests. There are greater hole variations and more lateral options on the tees, which willmake things more interesting.

“I have always viewed golf courses as living entities,something that can be constantly upgraded and improved. We have made some changes for this year’s Volvo China Open in creating four tees and having planted many new trees. In years to come, these changes will make a significant difference in the Silport experience.”

Soong said Silport’s Championship Course was in superb condition and he was looking forward to seeing what type of challenge the layout presented for Europe’s top professionals.
“They will see the way in which China is moving forward, I think many of the professionals and the golf media are going to be surprised. What they are going to find is tournament being held to the highest degree of professionalism in a modern city that is reclaiming in a modern city that is reclaiming its global standing,” he said. “China golf is only 20 years old, stillin its infancy. But if I can play a part in helping to grow its popularty through the Volvo China Open and my two clubs, Silport and Tiger Beach, then it has been my privilege.”

South China Morning Post November 25-28,2004